Posts tagged cov

Despite -- or more accurately, because of -- my love for video games, I would never want to work in the games industry as a developer or what have you. I think it's an industry that doesn't have a good track record of job security, sane hours, or products that you could feasibly spend years working...

One of the candidates vying to be the spiritual successor to City of Heroes will be moving into its fundraising stage come this September. Missing Worlds Media's The Phoenix Project, is preparing a Kickstarter campaign for September 8th. The team says that if all goes well (read: the project gets t...

Oh yeah, I'm going to totally suck you in with the tantalizing promise of itsy bitsy teeny weenie yellow polka-dot bikinis and then pull a bait-and-switch on you today. Shh. Don't tell your consciousness as it is already reading the next paragraph.
We kick off today's swimsuit-laden issue of One...

When life hands you lemons, you build a new life. Out of lemons. The metaphor is a bit tortured, but the ultimate point is still the same: When City of Heroes fans found out the game was shutting down, some decided to band together and make a new game to incorporate all of the best of CoH while not...

Character select and creation music has always fascinated me. OK, maybe not fascinated; it's interested me. I've always viewed such themes as the overture of the game, the interlude between the title theme and the game proper to come.
These themes don't tend to be rip-roaring in their presentati...

This is not timed perfectly to coincide with what would have been the ninth anniversary of City of Heroes. It couldn't be, honestly; trying to do so would have resulted in a worse column. There's also the simple fact that the ninth anniversary did not actually happen, the game was gone before then....

It's been a fairly quiet month on the superhero front, which is the way of things. Some months it seems as if you can't go a day without a new launch; others you realize belatedly that it's the end of the month because another round of bills are due. Possibly including subscription fees. It all tie...

Spiritual successor Heroes and Villains is marking City of Heroes' ninth anniversary with several new updates. These include a revamp of the website and forums and the launch of the game's first teaser trailer and first official screenshot.
Heroes and Villains aims "to create a casual, communi...

While City of Heroes is no longer with us -- you might not have heard, sorry -- the spirit lives on in its former players' hearts. As this week would have been the ninth anniversary of the superhero MMO, the community has decided to celebrate by remembering all of the greatest aspects about it.
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LAST TIME ON THE PERFECT TEN: Games were shut down, tears were shed, memories were dragged unwillingly from long-term storage, and videos were shown. Also, Marty totally suckered Biff into driving into a truck full of manure and then got his parents to kiss at a dance so that he wouldn't be erase...

My original plan for this week's column was to discuss themes and tone in superheroic games, but that got pushed to the side when Jack Emmert's comments about City of Heroes lit up the imagination of pretty much everyone still pining for Paragon City. For those who haven't already seen it, here's...

Yes, City of Heroes is gone. And it was as surprising to the Paragon Studios staff as it was to players. A recent interview with Matt Miller, former lead designer, explores the effort that management put into saving the studio and the game right up until the last minute. It also highlights the cont...

First of all, thank you guys so much for responding to our One Shots rallying cry and absolutely flooding us with screenshots! My cup overfloweth, and that's a delightful change of pace for this column. Even though we're quite literally set for months now, please keep sending in your favorite old...

Superheroes are defined by their villains. A lot of what makes Spider-man and Batman such celebrated characters is the fact that they've got no shortage of interesting opponents. DC Universe Online knew this when it launched and gave players a villainous option right from the beginning, something...

2012 was probably the worst year ever for fans of superheroes in the MMO space. The best months of the year were just kind of there, and then the biggest game in the genre unexpectedly closed. Unpacking what caused the City of Heroes closure is something that's ongoing to the moment, and I'd be r...

I promised you that we would be doing interviews next time, but astute readers would note that I did not say "next week." So welcome to our special extra installment of the column looking at two different sides following the City of Heroes shutdown.
We've already seen two projects coming from ...

The chance to prevent City of Heroes from being shut down may have passed, but the debates about the game's profitability and the merit of that shutdown aren't going anywhere. An anonymous source has come forward reaffirming several previous data points but also elaborating on some of the details...

As another gaming year spins to a close, we here at the Institute for Digital Interactive Entertainment have been holding our archaeological department hostage with a trained buffy-tufted marmoset until it delivered a final report. After hours of begging and infected monkey bites, the head of tha...

The game may be cold and gone at this point, but City of Heroes still lives in the warm, beating hearts of its fans. Two players endeavored to create tributes to the game that would endure long past its expiration date, and Massively thinks they should be shared with the larger community.
The ...

I am a complete sucker for three things: novelty soft drink flavors, Tom Servo's singing voice in MST3K, and end-of-the-year lists. Egads, I love the end of the year just for the lists alone. Everyone does them (copycats!), and I like to see how my opinions stack up against them. Plus, often I le...